playlist | the eight short preludes and fugues attributed to J. S. Bach

The set of ‘eight short preludes and fugues’ performed here date to the period 1730–50 (Williams) but for stylistic reasons are no longer judged to be the work of J.S. Bach himself (Durr, Lohmann, William).

In the most recent Bach catalogue issued by the Bach-Archiv of Leipzig (Wolff et al, 2022) these works are catalogued as BWV App A 1–BWV App A 8 with their former BWV numbers (553–560) merely noted for historical reference. I continue to use the former numbers here.

Source
The earliest surviving source of ‘the eight’ is one of five separately copied manuscripts that have been bound together into a single volume containing 12 keyboard works: ‘the eight’ plus copies of  BWV 913.2; 718; 916; 735.1. It has been proposed that the scribe was Bach’s great-nephew J.C.G.  Bach  (1747–1814) and that subsequently the whole volume was in the possession of J.S. Bach’s last pupil J.C. Kittel (1732–1809) (Lohmann, Williams). The manuscript volume was latterly owned by Georg Poelchau (1773–1836) who was an avid collector of Bach materials. Since 1841 the manuscript has been in the collection of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin as ‘D-B Mus.ms. Bach P 281’.

Linking this copy of  ‘the eight’ to the circle of J. S. Bach is strengthened by the fact that the same supply of paper used  for it was also used in three sections of an authenticated Bach manuscript, ‘D-B Mus.ms. Bach P 803’, one of whose scribes has been identified as J.L. Krebs (1713–80) (Williams), a pupil of Bach. NB A now-lost manuscript of ‘the eight’ – scribe unknown – was once owned by Bach biographer J.N. Forkel (1749–1818) and then by a promoter of Bach’s work F.C. Griepenkerl (1782–1849). It was used to produce the 1852 C.F. Peters (of Leipzig) edition of ‘the eight’ and is likely to have been a copy of ‘D-B Mus.ms. Bach P 281’. (Durr)

Style
Given that nowadays ‘the eight’ is merely “attributed” to Bach various commentators have tried to identify alternative composers but with no clear consensus emerging beyond stylistic traits, e.g. Italian concerto (no.1); durezze (no.3); neo-galant (no. 4); toccata (no.5); southern fugal styles (nos. 1, 4, & 5). (Durr, Lohmann, Williams).

My own hypothesis (2022) is that ‘the eight’ is likely to be by a student or students of Bach, the music of each piece being based upon an outline model, termed a ‘partimento’, that contains sufficient indications for the student to create a complete composition from it. The use of ‘partimenti’ was certainly a method by which Bach taught composition at the keyboard. (Milka).

Partimento sources
Collections of ‘partimento’ models were readily available in print at this time and  in ‘the eight’ can be found some (not all) melodic ideas similar to some of those in a ‘partimento’ volume called “L’A.B.C. Musical” (c.1734)  by Gottfried Kirchhoff (1685–1746); see two examples below. Kirchhoff was a composer-organist known personally to Bach (Milka).  My hypothesis implies that there  will be other (as-yet unidentified) generative sources for other parts of ‘the eight’.

Furthermore, it is worth noting that ‘the eight’ is not an ‘ad hoc’ assembly. As with  other early eighteenth-century keyboard collections – most famously Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (BWV 846–93) – its content is ordered by ascending key progression. However, unlike other such collections, the pieces here are not paired in major and minor keys, except in the case of G. Is ‘the eight’ perhaps an incomplete Bach-student project planned to be a larger collection?

NB. As its stands, the sequence of each piece’s tonic note forms the Mixolydian mode.

Performance
The attraction of this collection for me is not only that individual movements are useful in liturgical settings but also that the set, when played complete, makes a pleasing and varied baroque-period concert item from the circle of Bach.

In preparing these recordings of ‘the eight’ I have taken account of Baroque-period theory concerning the emotional character (affekt) of different musical keys, here pursuing a 1713 affekt-theory of the Hamburg composer and influential theorist Johann Mattheson (1681–1764). The instrument I am using is tuned according to the Baroque Werckmeister III system.

• • 1. C- major: … it has a rather hearty and confident character suited to the expression of joy.
    2. D-minor: … somewhat devout and calm, at the same time affecting, agreeable, and expressive of contentment … for the furthering of devotion in the church … ‘skipping’ music must not be written in it, whereas flowing music will be very successful.
    3. E-minor: … whatever one may do with it, it will remain pensive, profound, sad, and expressive of grief in such a way that some chance of consolation remains.
    4. F-major: … capable of expressing the most beautiful sentiments … generosity, steadfastness, love, or whatever else may be high on the list of virtues. It is natural and unforced when used to express such affects. It compares to a handsome person who looks good whatever he may do and who has, as the French say, ‘bonne grace’.
    5. G-major: … insinuating and persuasive … somewhat brilliant and suited to the expression of serious as well as joyful affects.
    6. G-minor: … almost the most beautiful key … rather serious combined with spirited loveliness, uncommon grace and affability … it lends itself well and flexibly both to moderate plaintiveness and tempered joy.
    7. A-minor: … somewhat plaintive, modest and relaxed … relaxing but not disagreeably so. NB These are qualities not immediately apparent here, given the free Stylus phantasticus manner of the prelude and the confident duple pulse of the fugue. While this music is neither ‘relaxed’ nor particularly ‘relaxing’ it does have a plaintive quality, heightened by the sharp intonation of A minor in the baroque Werckmeister III temperament (tuning) of the instrument used here.
    8. Bb-major: … very diverting and showy … it can pass as both magnificent and graceful … it elevates the soul to greater things.

Playlist: click on any title to start the playlist.

References and further reading

• —– D-B Mus.ms. Bach P 281. Online resource accessed 25 October 2022.
• —– ‘Eight Short Preludes and Fugues‘. Wikipedia. Online resource accessed 20 October 2022.
• —– ‘Johann Nikolaus Forkel’. Wikipedia. Online resource accessed 20 October 2022.
• —– ‘Friedrich Konrad Griepenkerl\. Wikipedia. Online resource accessed 20 October 2022.
• —– ‘Gottfried Kirchhoff‘. Wikipedia. Online resource accessed 22 October 2022. [In German]
• —– ‘Johann Ludwig Krebs’. Wikipedia. Online resource accessed 20 October 2022.
• —– ‘Johann Mattheson‘. Wikipedia. Online resource accessed 20 October 2022.
• —– ‘Partimento‘. Wikipedia. Online resource accessed 22 October 2022.
• —– ‘Werckmeister temperament‘. Wikipedia. Online resource accessed 20 October 2022.
• —– ‘Stylus P1hantasticus‘. Wikipedia. Online resource accessed 19 January 2022 
• —– ‘Georg Poelchau‘. Wikipedia. Online resource accessed 22 October 2022. [In German]
• Alfred Duur. ‘Introduction’.  Johann Sebastian Bach: ‘Acht kleine Präludien und Fugen’. Series: Barenreitr Urtext. (Kassel ; London : Bärenreiter 1990)
• Heinz Lohmann. ‘Introductory Notes’. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750): ‘8 Little Preludes and Fugues BWV 553-560’. (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1974). [Publisher’s inspection copy. Online resource, accessed 29 Oct0ber 2022.]
• Jon Laukvik. Historical Performance Practice in Organ Playing. Vol.1: The Baroque and Classical Periods. (Stuttgart: Carus, 1996).
• Johann Mattheson. Das Neu-Eröffnete Orchestre (Hamburg: Benjamin Schillers Witwe, 1713), as discussed in Hans Lenneberg ‘Johann Mattheson on Affect and Rhetoric in Music’. Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Nov., 1958), pp. 193-236. 234-36. (Online resource from Internet Archive, accessed 13 November 2022.)
• Anatol Milka. ‘Preface to the Facsimile Reproduction of the Original Edition of Gottfried Kirchhoff’s L’A.B.C Musical …‘. Bach (2011) Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 1-39.
• Derek Remes (ed). Gottfried Kirchhoff’s L’A. B. C. Musical: a modern pedagogical edition. [www.derekremes].
• William Renwick. The Langloz Manuscript Fugal Improvisation through Figured Bass (OUP: London, 2020]
• Maxim Serebrennikov. ‘L’A.B.C. Musical by Gottfried Kirchhoff: a work thought to be lost’. The Organ. Issue 350 (2009), 21–27. Online resource accessed 2 September 2023.
• George B. Stauffer. J.S. Bach: the organ works (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024)
• Peter Williams. The Organ Music of J. S. Bach (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)
• Christoph Wolff. ‘Johann Christoph Georg Bach’. The New Grove Bach Family  (London: MacMillan, 1983).
• Christoph Wolff. The Organs of J.S. Bach : A Handbook. (Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 2012).

Technical notes.
– Edition: Johann Sebastian Bach Acht kleine Präludien und Fugen. Series: Barenreitr Urtext. (Kassel ; London : Bärenreiter 1990)
– Temperament: Werckmeister III; pitch A=440– Organ: Viscount Sonus 60
– Microphone: Zoom Q2N-4K
– Recordings: ©Andrew Pink (2022–23). All rights reserved.Creative Commons licence: [Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International]

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